Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992. He is also Director for the Cities Research Programme at the International Growth Centre, LSE and Oxford, and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan institute. He is widely credited for having single handled revived the field of urban economics and has published numerous academic books and journal articles in the area as well as on economic growth, law, health and inequality. Since 2006 he has written and blogged for various news media and is the bestselling author of The Triumph of the City (Penguin Press 2004).

David Matthew Cutler is the Otto Ekstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University. He holds a joint appointment in the economics department and in Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard School of Public Health, as well as serving as commissioner on the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. He served in the administration of Bill Clinton and was the senior health care advisor to Barack Obama. As well as numerous academic books and articles he published Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Health Care System (OUP 2004).